


born to be bad (live to be good)

by juyang



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, NCT 2019, anyway, because its only mentioned and never described, black cat jaemin, black cat x spiderman, but i thought i should put it in the tags, but its healthy this time, enjoy, felicia hardy is my fucking queen and i want everyone to love her, i love my sad boys, okay so i didnt tag rape, okay um, saw a spiderman jeno fanart and i was like oh man remember this, spiderman - Freeform, spiderman jeno, this might get spicy bc jaemin is wearing skin tight black spandex and if i was a gay boy WOOH
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2019-09-03
Packaged: 2020-10-06 10:00:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20505101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/juyang/pseuds/juyang
Summary: Jeno didn’t ask to deal with this shit. Ever since he’s had to watch his brother die in his arms and taken up the responsibility of making sure no more innocent lives were taken, he never complained in the face of adversity. He faced his demons, whether they be literal or figurative, with nothing but a comical webbed suit and his fast wit- lame quips as Renjun called them. The city was safe because of him and he would never ever regret putting on that suit.Except maybe now.____or Lee Jeno is Spiderman and Na Jaemin is the notorious thief, Black Cat.





	born to be bad (live to be good)

**Author's Note:**

> TW// there are motivations to jaemin's character that involve rape. i know its a sensitive topic. it is never described only mentioned and it is based off actual Black Cat's motives. sorry pls dont hate me ok.

Jeno didn’t ask to deal with this shit. Ever since he’s had to watch his brother die in his arms and taken up the responsibility of making sure no more innocent lives were taken, he never complained in the face of adversity. He faced his demons, whether they be literal or figurative, with nothing but a comical webbed suit and his fast wit- lame quips as Renjun called them. The city was safe because of him and he would never ever regret putting on that suit. 

Except maybe now.

See, Jeno had his recurring villains as did anyone who wore spandex and fought the good fight but  _ this _ guy. This guy was like a piece of gum that just wouldn’t  _ unstick _ . No matter how hard Jeno tried to get rid of him, like some sort of fucked up boomerang, he kept coming back. 

“Hey there,  _ Spider _ .” 

Jeno groans as he recognizes the sultry voice (he didn’t even know guys could have sultry voices but nope, Black Cat could pull off any feat) and he tenses up before turning on his heel to see the lean black figure with his signature yellow eyes practically glowing in the dark. 

“What do you want now?”

“Aww, Spider, is that how you greet your favorite feline?” His voice sounds disappointed as his pretty lips purse into a pout but Jeno sees the gleam in his eye. He’s testing him. 

“You’re nowhere near my favorite feline,” Jeno deadpans, thinking about Mr. Jenkins, the cute tabby that lives behind the dorms of his university. 

“Pity. You’re my favorite arachnid.” He laughs to himself, as if he’s funny. He’s not. He’s annoying and Jeno does not think his laugh is nice at all. Not even a little. 

“Do you have a point to this visit? Or are you just here to annoy me?” Jeno’s teeth are clenching.

“Don’t be so mean, Spider-darling.” Black Cat smirks. “After all, I’ve been a good kitty lately. Did you see my work on Kingpin’s men the other day?” 

Jeno cocks his eyebrow, knowing full well Black Cat can’t see it under his mask. “Yes, I did actually. You snapped one of their backs.”

Black Cat shrugs. “He was a disgusting pig. Men generally are.”

“You’re a man. I’m a man.” Jeno reminds him. 

He smiles, jumping down from the ledge he perched on. “You’re an exception. The good little spider. New York’s personal hero.” He gets rather close and while every bit of Jeno’s spidey sense was going off, he did nothing to fight Black Cat tracing the spider emblem on his chest. “You give me hope. Hope that I could be this  _ good _ one day.”

Jeno’s breath hitches in his throat. He’s never seen this side of Black Cat. He got flirty sure but he never out right complimented him. It didn’t last long though because Black Cat jumps back, clearly uncomfortable with how real things just got. His mask is on again, not the one he wore around his eyes but the figurative one he always had to guard against Jeno or anyone for that matter. 

“But you’re right. I did come here for help,” Black Cat starts and Jeno can’t help but frown. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not going to trick you into burglarizing the Met again. Though you had to admit that shit was funny.”

Jeno glares at him and Black Cat clears his throat, returning back to his cool demeanor. 

“Anyway, I have a mission- no burglary. Cat’s honor, I swear.” Black Cat crosses an X into his chest and Jeno doesn’t believe him but his spider sense isn’t going off so might as well give him the benefit of the doubt (again). .

He rolls his eyes and leans in. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

Black Cat gives him a wicked grin, his golden eyes brightening ever so slightly in the night. “I assume you remember Taskmaster?”

* * *

Na Jaemin didn’t think he’d grow up to be the bad guy. He grew up idolizing the ones who donned capes and fought for the sake of mankind. Those with no agenda, who didn’t hide behind fake promises but hid behind masks and fought because it was the right thing to do. He used to run around the house, sheets tied around his neck, pretending to save the day. His sister would find it annoying while his dad would chortle and call him cute. His mom, however, she found it dangerous.

His mother always told him heroes were full of it. “Everyone has an agenda, my love. Promise me you’ll never grow up to be a superhero.”

He was heartbroken at first but he was a good kid and he didn’t want to make his mom sad. So he stopped wearing sheets, he wouldn’t draw himself in a mask and he put away his silly dreams, only letting himself take them out in the dead of night where his dreams would entertain the fantasy he never could.

And then it happened. 

He was 17 years old, about to graduate. He got an acceptance letter from Empire State University in biomedical engineering. He had his whole life ahead of him. That’s when his mother was killed by a misfire. One of the cops hunting down the infamous cat burglar, Black Cat, accidentally shot her despite her surrender.

That was the day Jaemin realized there was a reason his mother didn’t like superheroes. Because they fought thieves like her.

And that’s when it began. Hell. 

Jaemin didn’t have it all that bad. His sister did. 

His sister was going to New York University. It was pretty amazing, studying pre med. She too, had her whole life ahead of her.

Until her boyfriend decided to rape her. He got away with it because he was rich and white while she was the daughter of a lowly thief. Who were they going to believe?

And then Jaemin had to find out through Facebook, that the only daughter of Felicia Haerin Lee AKA Black Cat killed herself. 

Jaemin had been a freshman in university, just healing from the loss of his mother, only for another wound to be cut. His father ran off, not being able to bear it and who knew where the bastard was now? 

And it was Jaemin all alone, hurt and filled with a rage he had never known before. So he took a break from higher education, claiming he was going back to Korea in order to heal with his extended family. Instead he got a day job at an arcade/pizza joint and at night he attended street fights. Getting fucked up and winning money by getting beat up or beating up. Soon he got really good at fighting, like,  _ really _ good.

And that’s when he saw his sister’s ex-boyfriend. You know? The fucker who raped her and then took her life? Yeah. He saw him. Laughing with his friends in a booth at the joint he worked at. He had been so surprised, so caught off guard, he dropped a whole pizza straight on the ground. His manager had yelled at him for ten minutes straight but Jaemin hadn’t heard him. He had just been thinking about his laugh. His laugh. Like everything was alright. Like he didn’t commit the worst act known to man. Like he didn’t take his sister’s life. That’s all he could think about for days. For weeks. 

And finally, he snapped. He went into his closet, eyes in a daze, threw on a black hoodie, a black mask, black jeans and black shoes. And he felt her. He felt his mom. She must’ve felt powerful, dressing like the shadows, stealing to support her family. 

For days, he watched him. Stalking him from the roofs, Jaemin quickly learned how to scale buildings by leaping around and pulling himself up with the immense upper body strength he’s been building up. 

And then he killed him. He broke into his apartment when his roommate was gone, held a gun up against his head and made the guy write a letter saying he regretted his actions. Then, with the help of some cables lying around, made a makeshift noose and watched him thrash around. 

Jaemin never forgot the noise his neck made when it finally snapped. He returned home, hands shaking from what he just did and he vomited. 

He just killed a guy.

_ He just killed a guy. _

The cops didn’t bother thinking it wasn’t anything other than a suicide. It didn’t help that Bryce Walker had been severely depressed. On every type of antidepressant known to man with his therapist confirming that Mr. Walker had indeed been haunted by his wrong doings of the past. 

And that was how Jaemin got away with his first crime. After that, it was history. 

He started stealing. Small stuff at first. Just food and random snacks from convenience stores, not because he couldn’t afford it but just because he could. Killing someone makes little stuff like this feel like nothing and often, in those days, Jaemin felt like nothing. Like an empty void, just finding little things to live for. And stealing things right under people’s noses, the adrenaline he got from that? That kept him living. 

But it wasn’t enough. Little useless trinkets and malnutritioned snacks would stop giving him the little satisfaction he craved and he began to move onto bigger things. When he successfully got away with 800k dollars worth of jewelry from a pawn shop did Na Jaemin feel alive for the first time since his sister died. No. Since his mother died.

Oh how he missed her. Her lovely smile, her cheeky humor and her hugs. She was a scumbag thief to everyone else but to him she was everything. And he hadn’t been the same since she left him.

So he started stealing more and more. Getting cockier each time. Even having a sign off card with the words Black Cat, scrawled on them that he’d leave after he vacated a crime scene. He drove the police mad and caught the eyes of the Spider and of course, the head of all crime in New York City, Wilson Fisk- the Kingpin.

They got in contact and Kingpin offered Jaemin a place in his crime network. With his resources and Jaemin’s talent, there wasn’t anything that would be out of their reach. Whenever Kingpin couldn’t legally get something, Black Cat was sent in with a sleek new suit courteous of Fisk, retractable claws and his see in the dark eye contacts. They glowed yellow and made him look absolutely terrifying. A black mask which fit around his eyes and framed his face in a way that was breathable but distorted his features enough to where his identity wouldn’t be compromised. Still, he made it an effort to not be caught on camera or seen by too many eyes.

And so Jaemin fell headfirst into the world of crime, using his wits and clever tricks to get into anywhere and take anything. 

And nothing stood in his way. 

At least nothing until him.

* * *

Jeno had first met Black Cat in the Supreme Bank of New York. It was a large old bank that still carried actual money. Renjun, his best friend and tech genius, had sent him the heads up.

“ _ There’s been a break in at the Supreme, _ ” Renjun whispers in his ear, he had taken the AirPods Jeno’s roommate Felix had gifted him and fashioned them into a two-way communication port for both of them to use and under the mask that’s what Jeno had on. He asked Renjun why they didn’t just use actual Bluetooth communicators instead and Renjun gave him a look and said, “Which is easier to explain? A college student wearing AirPods or a college student wearing high tech spy gear?”

Jeno had to admit he had a point.

“Alright, heading there now,” Jeno says, giving himself a nice stretch before swooping down into New York city streets. He aims at a tall ledge and pulls himself up, right before he becomes just another skid mark in the concrete. “Anything about the perp?”

“ _ I can’t fucking hear when you’re in the air, Jeno. You know that. _ ” Oh yeah. Jeno forgets his friend didn’t have superhuman hearing. 

“Whatever. Also don’t call me by name. Got it, RJ?”

Jeno can just hear him roll his eyes. “ _ Yeah got it, Spiderman. Like the white-ass cops are gonna hear the names ’Renjun’ and ‘Jeno’ and fucking be able to write that shit down. _ ”

Jeno ignores him before he got into the logistics of name discrimination in modern day America. He took one Racial Awareness in the West course and he’s now a political activist. But that was one of Jeno’s favorite traits about Renjun, when he started learning something new he absorbs it into his personality. Renjun was always changing while Jeno stayed the same. Whatever crazy thing Renjun got into Jeno would entertain, giving Renjun the validation he craves while letting himself enjoy this new aspect of Renjun. They were great friends (terrible lovers but that’s another story). 

Jeno arrives at the bank with cops surrounding the scene looking too wary to go in. He never had a good relationship with the cops, they had their conflicts since he was a lone hero. With no affiliation to S.H.I.E.L.D or the Avengers, he had no means of being held accountable. They had him on the run a lot during his high school days. 

He sees a familiar face in the crowd and grins to himself before swinging in and landing atop a police car. Captain Mark Lee looks up, unimpressed, finding himself face to face with the masked hero he often runs into. 

“Spiderman,” he acknowledges. “Tapping into police radio again?”

“It’s not like you make it difficult,” he teases the elder. 

Mark Lee is the youngest captain in New York City. To be a police officer in the state of New York one had to be at least 21 years of age but Mark Lee was an exception. His entire family was on the force, the minute he graduated from Midtown High he enlisted. After teaming up with Jeno to bring down Doctor Octavius and saving the city from a plague that nearly killed millions (freshman year in Uni had been stressful for more reasons than one) he was promoted to captain. It also created a mutual respect between Jeno and the NYPD. They didn’t always get along and Mark never approved his methods but he was the first to recognize how many times Jeno had saved the city. Jeno had also once kissed him at a party but Mark didn’t know that was Spiderman. 

“Is it a hostage situation?” Jeno asks, wondering why a single officer hadn’t broken in. 

Mark shakes his head. “Not that we know of. The perpetrator deadlocked every entrance. The windows are all bulletproof so we can’t smash our way in.”

“Sounds like you need someone who can crawl into the ventilation system. Wonder if we know anyone like that?”

Mark gives him a look. “If you’re going to be like this you might as well join the police force.”

“Is that an invitation?”

Mark quirks an eyebrow. “You seriously considering?”

Jeno doesn’t answer instead tapping his Airpod on. “Yo, RJ, can you pull up the schematics of the bank. FInd me a way in through ventilation.”

Renjun’s annoyed voice rings in his ear. “ _ Do I fucking look like Siri _ ?”

“Siri doesn’t complain this much.”

“ _ Fuck you. On the west side there should be a vent big enough to fit your big ass head into. _ ”

“Gee thanks."

“ _ Don’t bother me anymore. I’m writing Super Mario fanfiction. _ ”

Jeno rolls his eyes at that before turning to Mark. “Sorry about that. He’s my intern.”

“ _ Eat a whole dick, Jeno. _ ” 

“Did you find a way in?” Mark asks.

“I’ll be back before you can read the asshole his miranda rights.”

“You’re not funny, Spiderman.”

But Jeno was already scaling the building, kicking the vent in and slipping inside. The vents were cramped and uncomfortable but Jeno had squeezed into worse so he just tries to find the quickest way out.

And bingo, he kicks a loose panel out, swinging his whole body through the opening. Using that momentum he lands on the ceiling. He scans the hallway he found himself in. There was no sign of the perpetrator but he didn’t let his guard down. 

“ _ Police last reported him in the vaults. That’s 15 floors down. Take the stairs, he’ll hear you coming from the elevator. _ ” Renjun takes a break from his weird Mario x Bowser fanfiction writing to actually be helpful. 

Jeno groans. “I hate stairs.”

“ _ Get over it. You’re Spiderman. _ ” 

Jeno quickly locates the stairwells and just chooses to jump through the center of the railings before catching himself at the bottom floor. Who needed stairs when he had his webs?

“Okay, I’m here.”

Renjun doesn’t reply but Jeno knows he’s listening. He takes a deep breath and enters the floor to the vaults.

Immediately it’s apparent the perp has been here. The security guards were knocked out on the floor. Jeno examines their bodies and finds two injections in the neck, no bruises or signs of a fight. 

“He drugged them.” Jeno reports. “Just who is this guy?”

“ _ I don’t know but be careful.”  _

Jeno nods to himself before proceeding with caution. He arrives at the vaults just in time to see a black figure dash towards the secondary exits. 

“Hey! Stop!” He shouts.

Surprisingly the figure listens. Jeno doesn’t make a move to pounce just yet, he’s trying to keep his attention. 

“What’s the rush?”

The figure turns around and the first thing that piques Jeno’s curiosity is his eyes, glowing yellow. Then he notices his outfit. He’s covered in black spandex that hugs him in  _ interesting _ places. On his neck there’s a choker of sorts with a silver cat charm dangling. He’s wearing a mask that covers half his face from his eyes up to his forehead. The mask shapes into two points on either side of his face and Jeno realizes it's made to look like a cat. 

And then Jeno realizes who he is. 

“Black Cat? Moved on from petty theft to full on bank heists did you?”

Black Cat gives him a catty grin. “Spider! It’s about time we’ve met, huh? Like my new fit?” 

“Love it actually. Unfortunately, I’m going to need that bag of cash. It doesn’t suit you anyway.”

Black Cat whistles and suddenly black suited thugs began to filter in, each inching towards Jeno with murderous intent. 

“Sorry, Spider! I’m on a tight schedule. Gotta get this to my sponsor. Have fun with my friends!” And with that he dashes away, lugging a gigantic bag of cash like it was nothing. 

Jeno makes a move to go after him but one of the thugs grabs at him, flinging him back. 

“Renjun! Does Black Cat have a team of buddies he works with?”

“ _ You’re fighting Black Cat?”  _

“No, just thought I’d get hypothetical. Yes, I’m fighting Black Cat! Well, rather, his goons,” Jeno bites out, as he knocks out another one of the thugs before shooting a web at his chest so he can swing him into his buddies. 

Jeno hears the clacking of Renjun’s keyboard. “ _ As far as I know, Black Cat surfaced about a few months ago. Stealing random things here and there. He got away with 800k worth of jewelry before disappearing for a month or so. Doesn’t say anything about him having a team. It seems to be solo work. From eyewitness alerts, he usually wears a black hoodie and a mouth mask.” _

Jeno slams the last thug down into the ground, webbing him up so he can’t move. He quickly lets himself catch his breath before chasing after where he last saw Black Cat slink off to. 

“He had a whole suit on though. He mentioned it was new. He also mentioned a sponsor. Think he’s working with someone?” Jeno notices the elevator is heading to the top floor. Groaning, he heads back into the stairwell and starts pounding up the steps. 

“ _ Who do we know that could supply Black Cat a new makeover and sponsors crime?” _

Jeno grits his teeth. “Kingpin.”

Renjun sighs. “_This isn’t good._ _“_

Jeno reaches the top floor with a record time and sprints to the elevator which opens just in time for Jeno to see a black Maneki Neko figurine mockingly waving to him.  _ Better Luck Next Time _ was scrawled next to it. How could he be so stupid to not even consider the elevator as a distraction? While Jeno had chased the stupid thing to the top floor, Black Cat had probably gotten off at a lower floor and escaped. 

“Damn it!” 

“ _ Black Cat got away on a motor bike. Not before slashing all the cop car tires. We lost this one. _ ”

“This isn’t over. Give me everything on Black Cat.”

“ _ Again, do I fucking look like Siri _ ?”


End file.
